NOW WE MUST PUSH OUR LUCK
Herrera’s aiming to steal a march
ASSISTANT manager Robbie Herrera says Dorchester Town must now take advantage of their good fortune and push the club forward.
The Magpies lay rock bottom of the table and 11 points from safety in Southern League Premier South – only to avoid relegation due to the season’s premature end.
Herrera, who made over 100 appearances for Torquay and spent two seasons as assistant manager at Plainmoor, joined the Dorset club in January as Leigh Robinson’s number two.
And the 50-year-old knows the club have been handed a lifeline – and will need to ensure that they don’t find themselves in that position again.
“It was a really difficult time,” Herrera told The NLP. “Leigh and I arrived in January and things didn’t quite turn for us immediately. Just before lockdown we beat Wimborne and we thought we were going to begin stringing a few decent results together.
Progress
“Even if we had, though, it still would have been incredibly difficult to get out of the situation the club were in. It sounds awful and we don’t want it to ever happen again, but we see ourselves as very lucky. Dorchester deserve to be in this division and now we can start to rebuild the club to get back to where it should be. Relegation is not what this club should be fighting to avoid.
“It was never going be a quick fix, but the board have been fantastic. They have been really supportive and understand the situation we were put in.”
Looking to start a new era, Dorchester have already been busy in the transfer window, adding defender Josiah Dunstan from Hungerford Town and full-back Oakley Hanger, who returns from a spell in the United States.
But it’s the marquee signing of defender Harry Hodges from Bristol Rovers which is seen by
Herrera as a significant addition to the Magpies squad – and he wants fans, and rival teams, to sit up and take notice.
“I know Harry well from Plymouth and he knows how to play. He’s young at 20, as fit as a fiddle and will refresh the club,” he added. “If we can get people who can run for 90 minutes then we have a chance. I don’t want to set any grand ambitions for next season but to be out of that bottom five would be a place to start.
“If we can get out of the habit of other clubs seeing us as an easy three points, it’s progress. We want to be a place that is hard to come to.”